The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has flayed Catholic Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese Matthew Kukah for his involvement in the alleged endorsement of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
BMO said the cleric was longer fit to be part of the National Peace Committee led by former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar for his partisanship.
The group accused the cleric of openly engaging in partisan politics by leading other religious leaders to seek former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s endorsement for Atiku, who is now Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate.
But Rev. FR. Kukah had said he only took part in a reconciliation process between Obasanjo and the former vice president and not an endorsement.
In a statement signed by its chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and secretary Cassidy Madueke, the group stressed that the Abubakar-led committee should be seen to be non-partisan because of the role it played in the run up to the 2015 election.
They said: “We are surprised, like many Nigerians, to see Bishop Kukah in the company of the opposition candidate at a reconciliation meeting with former President Obasanjo, and later on claiming to be the strategic mind behind the reconciliation, which we believe was targeted towards bringing the two parties together to fight the President Buhari administration.
“This is not expected of a clergyman, who is seen in some quarters as the alternate head of the National Peace Committee. He has shown his bias and as such cannot be trusted to be non-partisan.”
Dismissing the claim that he was not aware of the political nature of the gathering, the group said: “The clergyman was the key figure behind the reconciliation and did this knowing that Atiku was a PDP presidential aspirant.
“And if it is true that Bishop Kukah is insisting that he was only exercising his right to free movement, we are also demanding that having shown his hand, he has no reason to sit on a panel that is meant to be non-partisan.”
Reacting to reports credited to Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal that President Buhari is not in charge of government but only ruling the country by proxy, the group assured Nigerians that the President was fully in charge and in control of the government. It added that anyone who is in doubt of this is in grave error.
The BMO said it was clear from his utterances that Tambuwal was getting frustrated after failing go get the PDP’s presidential ticket, describing him as a failed politician.
They alleged that due to his lack of confidence in himself, he depended solely on the support of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike for his failed presidential bid and having failed to realise his ambition, Tambuwal has now become a stooge of the PDP presidential candidate.
They said: “We wish to note that Governor Tambuwal has not only failed to serve the people of Sokoto State diligently in the past three and half years, but has, in his utterances, displayed crass ignorance on sensitive national issues.”
“Perhaps the clearest evidence of Tambuwal’s failure as a politician and governor is that he has turned himself into an errand boy of his fellow contestant Atiku Abubakar and the opposition PDP.
“We, therefore, advise the Sokoto State Governor to stop deluding himself about his party defeating President Buhari in the 2019 presidential election as Nigerians have already taken note of Buhari’s commitment towards solving the myriad of problems confronting the country, and they are poised to re-elect him as president in 2019.”